If you are looking for some way to outspeed your opponent, the Gale Rune is the one of your need. Unlike the Holy Rune and True Holy Rune, which are meant to increase you traveling speed in dungeons and on world maps, the Gale Rune takes action in combat as it increases the characters speed stat by a great deal.
In the Gate Rune War the Gale Rune was introduced with a huge speed boost of 100%, letting you pratically draw before any foe had the chance to. However, due to the limitation of one rune per character here, you couldn't combine the push with magic or special attacks. Therefore, Suikoden II degraded the Gale Rune by 50%, yet still suitable for quick fighters. Essentially for a strategic game, Suikoden Tactics lowers the boost again to merely 20% speed bonus. Eventually, Suikoden V takes away the stat boost and puts the runes bearer simply at the start of the battle queue. It is remarkable how often this rune was changed throughout the series.
Nevertheless, the Gale Rune lends itself to various experimentations with other runes as well as a fast friend for those in love with preemptive strikes. - Celes